Beer of the Week – Swannay Sneaky Wee Orkney Stout

Another week draws to a close with a beery recommendation from me on a great Scottish beer that might be flying under your radar. Two, in fact, as last week I ran out of time to get one up so it’s a twofer this time around. And in an act of true symmetry the beers this week are a stout and a porter. The latter will be detailed in a second post, so let’s get to the stout. And what a stout it is.

Swannay are no strangers to this list; I’ve already featured the all-world Old Norway barley wine and their blink and you miss it Orkney Session – but they are masters of the dark beer as well. As I said about two weeks ago, there are so many stouts on this list – far more than I would have thought when starting out this adventure back in January – but maybe given the weather here that shouldn’t have been so surprising. So if you’re looking for another great Scottish stout, you have to get a little sneaky…

42. Sneaky Wee Orkney Stout (4.2%)
Swannay Brewery, Orkney
Style: Stout
500ml bottle

Pick it up here:
At Swannay’s online shop (as individual 500ml bottles)

This is a beautifully roasty numnber – as all the best stouts are. Dry, ash-bitter and chocolatey this beer is a triumph of roasted barley. Now there is another stout from a Celtic nation that prides itself on the use of this ingredient, but Sneaky Wee Orkney Stout delivers all that you would expect from a dark beer and then some. That extra push is down to dry-hopping, which just about appears to add a complementary input but never removing an ounce from the showcase of roasty flavour. It’s a joy to drink, particularly at this time of year.

Beer of the Week Series:
1. Fyne Ales Highlander
2. Swannay Old Norway
3. Broughton Old Jock
4. Traquair House Ale
5. Tempest Easy Livin Pils
6. Cromarty Brewed Awakening
7. Fallen Chew Chew
8. Black Isle Hibernator
9. Isle of Skye Red
10. Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Engineer’s Reserve
11. Orkney Skull Splitter
12. Windswept Wolf
13. Kelburn Dark Moor
14. Alechemy 5ive Sisters
15. Loch Ness Light Ness
16. St Andrews Eighty Bob
17. Harviestoun The Ridge
18. Orkney Dark Island
19. Williams Bros Seven Giraffes
20. Cairngorm Black Gold
21. Strathaven Craigmill Mild
22. Black Isle Red Kite
23. Spey Valley Spey Stout
24. Top Out Schmankerl
25. Cross Borders Braw
26. Williams Bros Midnight Sun
27. BrewDog Kingpin
28. Fyne Ales Hurricane Jack
29. Deeside MacBeth
30. Drygate Ax Man Red Rye IPA
31. Swannay Orkney Session
32. Fallen Platform C
33. Black Isle Porter
34. Top Out Altbier
35. Black Metal Gates of Valhalla
36. Fierce Beer Cranachan Killer
37. Loch Lomond Southern Summit
38. Tempest Old Parochial
39. Williams Bros Profanity Stout
40. Windswept Tornado
41. Campervan Pacific Zest